7 



Ei^dz 






^tiof^y 



REMARKS 

OF 

WiLMOT G. DeSaussure, President, 



THE STATE SOCIETY OF THE CINCINNATI OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 



20th OCTOBER, 1884. 



Gentlemen of the Cincinnati Society : Permit me, in rising 
to propose the regular toast at this meeting, to preface it 
with some remarks which I hope may interest you : 

Stedman, in his History of the American War, says, v. 2, 
p. 187, " The Commander-in-Chief (Sir Henry Clinton) in 
his public order issued after the surrender of the town, and' 
in his dispatches to the Secretary of State, was lavish in his 
encomiums upon the officers who served under him, and 
the troops he commanded. The assistance he received 
during the siege from his general officers. Earl Cornwallis, 
Major-Generals Leslie, Huyne, and Kospolth, and Brigadier- 
General Patterson, is not only honorably remembered but 
thankfully acknowledged." Very little could Earl Corn- 
wallis and his associates, when thus triumphing at the 
capitulation of Charles Town, So. Ca., on 12th May, 1780, 
have anticipated that the apparent success which had then 
attended *their arms, was in fact but an initiative step to the 
surrender at Yorktown, by the same Earl Cornwallis, on 
19th October, 17S1. The capitulation of Charles Town had 
seemed to the British Government, and its military com- 



manders in America, the blow which would at last reduce 
the rebellious colonies to submission. The Southern Colo- 
nies were now subdued, as they thought, and it only 
remained for the British armies in the Southern Colonies, 
and from New York, to envelop the army under General 
Washington, crush his forces out, and then quietly reduce 
the New England Colonies. British hopes and anticipa- 
tions for such a result ran very high, and for a time seemed 
about to be realized. Had any one had the temerity to 
whisper that the fair promise was not only illusory, but 
actually a step on the road to defeat, he would have been 
regarded as a fanatic and madman. Yet such was in fact 
the case, as we know by the light of after events. 

When the war of the Revolution commenced at Lexing- 
ton, on 19th April, 1775, the British army may be said to 
have been massed in Boston, Massachusetts. Referring to 
the troops then in Boston, Stedman says : "An addition to 
the land and sea forces was voted by the House of Com- 
mons, and a large reinforcement ordered to Boston, under 
the command of the Generals Howe, Clinton and Burgoyne, 
all of them officers of reputation " The battle of Bunker's 
Hill, on 16th June, 1775, the action of the Continental 
Congress in raising troops, and the siege of Boston, all gave 
assurance to the British Government that a war had 
actually been inaugurated. 

The same author says : "All the colonies, now united, vied 
with each other in professions of invincible attachment to 
the common cause; and the Congress beheld their power 
acknowledged, in a very great degree, from Nova Scotia to 
Georgia. And it was now evident that the mother country 
was as resolutely determined to maintain, as they were to 
resist her authority. They began to concert measures for 
supporting a war, and, in the first place, to consider where 
that authority was most vulnerable. With these sentiments 
they cast their eyes on the Province of Canada." 

The expedition to that Province, though sanctified by 
the patriotic bood of Montgomery, and the many gallant 
men who, under his command, laid down their lives in the 









righteous cause in which they had taken up arms, proved 
not only unsuccessful but disastrous. Had the British com- 
manders in America, in their subsequent successes, pursued 
the same humane, gallant, and wise course adopted by Sir 
Guy Carleton towards the unfortunate prisoners taken 
then, a different result may have fallen to the American 
struggle. A Latin author said : " Qiios Dem vult perdere. 
prius dementat." As we proceed we may see how signally 
this was illustrated. 

While the Canadian expedition was progressing, the siege 
of Boston by the American troops was steadily continued, 
and " the British troops blockaded in Boston suffered incredi- 
ble hardships and fatigue." * * * it ^yas therefore 
determined to evacuate the town. * * It was effected, 
and the brave garrison, with those attached to the British 
cause, in number about 2000, embarked for Halifax, in 
Nova Scotia. * * Thus was the capital of Massachusetts 
added to the iVmerican cause." (Stedman.) 

The colonies were, by this evacuation, relieved of the 
presence of the British. But in the mean time, the British 
Government was endeavoring, among the Highlander set- 
tlements of North Carolina, to embody troops with a view 
to the preservation and restoration of Royal authority in 
that Province. Governor Martin (the Royal Governor) 
held out such representations that " in consequence of these 
representations, the Fifteenth, Twenty-eighth, Thirty-third, 
Thirty-seventh, Fifty-fourth, and Fifty-seventh Regiments, 
with seven companies of the Forty-sixth Regiment, em- 
barked from Cork, on 12th February, 1776, under the com- 
mand of Lord Cornwallis, in several transports, under the 
convoy of Sir Peter Parker." (Stedman.) On 3d May, 1776, 
these arrived in the Cape Fear River, and General Clinton 
took command. " General Clinton's orders were to try if 
any of the Southern Provinces would take up arms in favor 
of Britain ; in which case he was to have left a body of 
troops to assist these loyalists ; but he was instructed to 
repair with the remainder of the troops to New York 
harbor by such time as it was possible that the commander- 



ill-chief would arrive from Halifax, to begin the great 
operations for that campaign." (Stedman.) General Clinton, 
pursuing the general purpose of his instructions, on 28th 
June, 1776, engaged Fort Moultrie, and was driven out of 
Charleston harbor, and from the Southern States. " On 
21st (July) the army sailed for New York, under the 
convoy of the Solebay frigate, the rest of the fleet being 
under the necessity of remaining to refit. Thus ended an 
expedition from which the friends of government had pre- 
dicted the most beneficial consequences." (Stedman.) 

On 29th June, 1776, the British army, which, with " the 
reinforcements brought from England, amounted, with the 
troops already in America, to near 30,000 men," began to 
rendezvous at Sandy Hook. To oppose this force, which 
was again reinforced shortly after, General Washington had 
less than 9,000 troops of all descriptions, very many of 
whom were unarmed : and at no time during the opera- 
tions around New York did his army exceed 16,000. It is 
not wonderful then, that, outnumbered by two to one, and 
the outnumbering army supplied with the best arms and 
appliances then known in warfare, and with the army aided 
by a powerful fleet co-operating on a water field admirably 
fitted for its use, that the Continental army was obliged to 
evacuate New York, and place itself in position along the 
Hudson river. The British plan of the campaign of the 
years 1776 and 1777 seems to have been to operate by the 
Hudson, so as to separate the New England Provinces from 
the Middle and Southern, doubtless with the intent to turn 
either to the right or left, as circumstances should develop, 
and so destroy the American army in detail. It is accor- 
dingly found that the rest of 1776 was given to such plan, 
and to threats through New Jersey, upon Philadelphia, 
where the Continental Congress held its sessions. The year 
1777 found this plan being still carried out, while Burgoyne 
was inarching from Canada towards New Yoik. Lord 
Howe was endeavoring to penetrate up the Hudson, so as to 
make a junction with him, the effect of which would have 
been just wliat seems to have been the strategic design, 



when New York was selected as the salient point from 
which to attack and destroy the American army. 

The expeditions up the Hudson came to naught, and at 
Saratoga, on 17tli October, 1777, the army under Burgoyne 
was surrendered as prisoners of war. So that this plan of 
campaign, through the vigilance and skill of the American 
commander, and the devotion, gallantry, and courage of the 
troops under his command, failed of its accomplishment. 
But as an auxiliary to the plan of campaign, Sir William 
Howe, in July, 1777, operated, with a large force, by the 
way of the Chesapeake Bay, against Philadelphia, and on 
27th September, 1777, occupied that city, the American 
army being too weak and illy provided to prevent it. Had 
the expedition up the Hudson and Burgoyne's march from 
Canada been successful, the two combined with the capture 
of Philadelphia, may have put an end to the war. But the 
failures of the two first paralyzed the last, and Sir Wm. 
Howe sat down in Philadelphia from September, 1777, to 
June, 1778, having accomplished very comparatively little 
towards the great operations of the campaign. So little, 
that even when, at Valley Forge, in winter quarters, the 
army of General Washington was reduced to about 3000 
men, nearly naked, almost starved, and very illy armed, 
the British army accomplished nothing against it. It is 
true that in December, 1777, an expedition, which was 
intended to surprise and capture or destroy the American 
army, was organized, and may possibly have been successful 
but for the heroic conduct of that noble Quakeress, Lydia 
Darrell, whose name and whose act of devotion should be 
embalmed in and dear to ever}' American heart. 

In June, 1778, Philadelphia was evacuated, and the 
plains of New Jersey became the battle fields of the war. 
But it had by this time became apparent to the British 
commander that a new plan of campaign must be organ- 
ized. First, however, in a spirit of revenge for disappointed 
expectations in the early autumn of 1778, Rhode Island was 
ravaged with ruthless barbarity. 

The new campaign turned to the Southern Provinces for 



6 

its field. St. Augustine, Florida, was the gathering place 
of the tories from the Southern Colonies, and the Indians 
along the borders of the Southern Colonies had been in- 
flamed by British emissaries and arts, until it was thought 
the time waS ripe to inaugurate a campaign which should 
subjugate the Southern Provinces, and take them from the 
American Union. In December, 1778, this campaign was 
inaugurated, and Savannah was captured. Apprehending 
something of this, the commander of the Southern Depart- 
ment, General Robert Howe, had planned, in the summer of 
1778, an expedition against Florida, which had signally 
failed, and proved disastrous in the extreme from the mor- 
tality which ensued upon a summer campaign in the 
swamps and morasses of lower Georgia and Florida. Of the 
continental troops which took part in this campaign, nearly 
two-thirds died, and like losses were sustained by the State 
troops and militia. 

In May, 1779, the British General, Prevost, seeing the 
great part of the American army, which lay between 
Savannah and Charleston, carried off on a bootless expedi- 
tion to Augusta, Georgia, made a bold dash for Charles- 
ton, and had nearly succeeded in capturing it. The rapid 
concentration of the returning American troops, with the 
reinforcement of militia, and the consciousness that he him- 
self was scarcely prepared to stand a siege, even if he 
captured Charleston, caused Prevost to decamp in hot haste, 
and by the way of the Sea Islands route, return to Savan- 
nah. His expedition, however, developed the fact that 
Charleston could be assailed by land, and it left a garrison 
at Beaufort, So. Ca., as a starting point. True this garrison 
was withdrawn in October, 1779, to reinforce the garrison 
at Savannah, when assaulted by the combined French and 
American forces. But the skill displayed by the British 
commander, Colonel Maitland, in carrying this garrison to 
Savannah, disclosed the fact that a judicious use of these 
internal water ways would be of immense advantage in 
such subsequent operations as should be inaugurated. 

During the year 1779, the operations of the British army 



in the Northern Colonies had been, generally, of a desultory 
character. Apparently, judging by after events, the cam- 
paign plans of 1780-1781 were being slowly organized, and 
the means being gathered to ensure their success. While 
these things had been going on, Sir William Howe had 
retired from the command of the British army, and been 
succeeded by Sir Henry Clinton. 

This brief sketch has been given to show what had, 
seemingly, been the British plans of campaign up to the 
opening of 1780, and why those plans having proved unsuc- 
cessful, a new plan, from which more could be hoped, was 
to be substituted. 

Stedman details the plan, and commences thus : " Sir 
Henry Clinton having been cramped in his operations by 
the proceedings of the French fleet under Count d'Estaing, 
whose unsuccessful attack upon Savannah, together with 
his final departure from the American coast, has already 
been related, no sooner received certain information of the 
departure of d'Estaing than he set on foot an expedition, 
the object of which was the taking of Charleston, and the 
reduction of the Province of South Carolina." Tarleton, in 
in his Memoirs, reiterates this. 

The result of this campaign was " the capitulation was 
signed on the 12th Ma}'^ (1780), and on the same da}'^ the 
garrison laid down their arms, and Major-General Leslie 
took possession of the town. By the articles of capitulation 
the garrison were allowed some of the honors of war, they 
were to march out and deposit their arms between the 
canal and the works of the place ; but the drums were not 
to beat a British march, nor the colors to be uncased ; the 
Continental troops and seamen, keeping their baggage, were 
to remain prisoners of war until exchanged ; the militia 
were to be permitted to return to their respective homes as 
prisoners on parole, and while they kept their parole, were 
not to be molested in their property by the British troops ; 
the citizens of all descriptions were to be considered as pris- 
oners on parole, and to hold their property in the town on 
the same terms as the militia." 



" By the fall of Charleston, the capture of the Deputy 
Governor, and the greatest part of the Council, and the 
defeat and dispersion of the only regular force which Gen'l 
Lincoln had left without the lines, the war in South Caro- 
lina seemed entirely subdued : and these expeditions, set 
on foot by the Commander in Chief, immediately after these 
events, appeared well calculated to deepen the impression 
that had been made, and to extinguish every idea of fur- 
ther resistance amongst the people of the interior country, 
if any such idea could at that time be supposed to exist." 

These expeditions were designed to spread over the Prov- 
ince, establish garrisoned posts in various different locali- 
ties, and by force of arms subjugate the State. 

Sir Henry Clinton also issued three proclamations : the 
first called upon those who sympathised with the British 
cause, to embody themselves into troops, the older men to 
act as a home militia, and the younger men to enter into 
active service : the second promised " protection and sup- 
port to the King's ftxithful and peaceable subjects, and the 
most exemplary severity, with confiscation of property, de- 
nounced against those who should hereafter appear in arms 
within the Province against his majesty's government, or 
who should attempt to compel any others to do so. or who 
should hinder or intimidate any of the King's faithful and 
loving subjects from joining his forces, or performing those 
duties which their allegiance required : the third, issued as 
*' commissioner for restoring peace to the colonies," offered 
full and free pardon to all who having been misled from 
duty should immediately return to their allegiance, and a 
due obedience to the laws." 

Lord Cornwallis was in command of the main expedition, 
that which marched upon Camden ; and Lieutenant-Colonel 
Tarleton, detached from his command, was sent in pursuit 
of Colonel l^uford. The butchery which ensued is too 
well known to need repetition. Even Stedman says: "but 
the virtue of humanity was totally forgot." And he also 
says " upon the march to Camden the British troops were 
supported from the country through which they passed. 



9 

A number of negroes mounted on horses were employed, 
under proper conductors, in driving in cattle for the sup- 
port of the army, and though they were in general very 
small, the army was plentifully supplied." From this it 
will be seen that the policy adopted was ruthless, notwith- 
standing the articles of capitulation so recently signed. No 
quarter to men in arms, even although not prisoners on 
})arole ; no protection to property although solemnly guar- 
anteed. Stedman continues : " The last remains of the 
Continental force in South Carolina being extirpated by the 
defeat of Buford at Waxhaws, and the inhabitants in most 
parts of the Province having either submitted to the British 
Government, or taken paroles from the officers command- 
ing the detachments sent among them, the commander-in- 
chief, considering the Province as completely reduced, 
thought fit, previous to his departure for New York, to alter 
the condition of those who had submitted upon parole ; and 
instead of considering them any longer as prisoners, to 
require of them the duties, and entitle them to the rights 
of active citizens and loyal subjects. For this purpo.se a 
proclamation was issued, bearing date 3d June, declaring 
that all the inhabitants of the Province who were prisoners 
on parole, except those wdio were in the military line, and 
those who were in Fort Moultrie, or in Charleston at the 
time of the surrender of those places, or who were then in 
actual confinement, sbould, from and after the •20th of that 
month, be freed and exempted from all such paroles, and be 
restored to the rights and duties of citizens and inhabitants. 
But by the same proclamation it was also declared tliat all 
persons under the above description, who should afterwards 
neglect to return to their allegiance, and a due submission 
to his majesty's government, should be considered as ene- 
mies and rebels to the same, and be treated accordingl3^ 
These general regulations having been established, the com- 
mander-in-chief, on 5th June, embarked for New York, 
carrying with him all the troops that could be spared, 
leaving Lieutenant-General Earl Cornwallis in the command 
of th(»se that reinaiited, with the charge of prosoc-uting the 



10 

war in South. Carolina as soon as the season of the year 
and other circumstances would permit." Lossing says of 
this, " this flagrant violation of the terms of capitulation 
aroused a spirit of indignant defiance which proved a pow- 
erful lever in overturning the royal power in the South." 
Speaking of this course as one of the causes which subse- 
quently led to the general uprising against the British 
authority, Stedman says : " These classes of men were very . y' 
early disgusted by the proclamation of Sir Henry Clinton, 
which, without their consent, abrogated the paroles that 
had been granted, and in one instant converted them either 
into loyal subjects or rebels. If it was proper policy at first 
to hold a middle course between these opposite extremes, the 
same policy required that it should have been continued 
some time longer; and that the conditions of the inhabitants 
should have been altered rather at their own application, 
either individually or collectively, than by the arbitrary 
fiat of the commander-in-chief" 

Two steps in the mad career had been taken ; this was the 
third ; a fourth, more exasperating, was to follow. "Corn- 
wallis, in further violation of the conditions of capitulation, 
sent many leading men of Charleston as close prisoners to 
St. Augustine;" while many others were confined in the 
prison ships Torbay and Packhorse in Charleston Harbor. 

And, the crowning act of all this madness, was the em- 
bodiment all through the State, of bands of Tories under 
the authority of the above proclamations, by which the 
Whig inhabitants were worried, plundered and murdered 
in open violation of all the pledges given to the contrary. 
Drunken with the lust of power, the British conqueror acted 
as if the pledges given by him were of no force or obligation. 
Truly, by such course, was confirmed the maxim, "whom 
the gods wish to destroy, they first madden." For by the 
policy pursued, the patriotic inhabitants were bitterly taught 
to realize that no faith was to be placed in the assurances 
given, and that their liberties, self-respect, and property 
could be preserved only by the aid of the sword which they 
had invoked in the inception of the Revolution. 



11 

Very soon, little bands of patriots began to gather in 
various sections of the State, and to stand to their arms in 
defence of home, liberty, and their rights. Often defeated 
and scattered, they rallied and re rallied, now striking here, 
and now there, always gaining in confidence, and slowly but 
surelj^ drawing more and more of strength from among the 
harried citizens. 

The affairs at Beckhamville, Mobley's Meeting House, 
Musgrove's Mills, Rocky Mount, Hanging Rock, Black- 
stocks, all showed that the proclamations, and the spread of 
the British army throughout the State to enforce these, had 
aroused a spirit of most determined resistance. "The British 
officers were perplexed." General Gates, with a Continental 
force, approached Camden, and Lord Cornwallis hastened 
from Charleston to the threatened point. At Rugeley's 
Mills, near Camden, General Gates suffered that disastrous 
defeat which again annihilated the American army which 
had been sent into South Carolina, and practically placed 
him upon the retired list during the remainder of the war. 
Pressing his victory, Earl Cornwallis "considered the subju- 
gation of South Carolina complete, and confident of future 
success," advanced to Charlotte, North Carolina. 

Unmindful of the wanton violation of faith on the part 
of the British, Lord Cornwallis saw fit to think the patriotic 
uprising acts of perfidy to be restrained "by examples of 
severity and the terrors of punishment. With this view, 
the estates of all who had left the province to join the ene- 
mies of Great Britain, or who were employed in the service, 
or held commissions under the authority ot Congress, and 
also of all those who continued to oppose the re-establish- 
ment of his majesty's government within the province, were 
ordered to be sequestered * * and to impress them with an 
idea that this punishment (instant death to those who hav- 
ing taken protection were afterwards found in arms) would 
be hereafter rigorously inflicted. Some few of the most hard- 
ened of the militia who had been taken in General Gates's 
army with arms in their hands and protections in their 
pockets were actually executed." (Stedman.) 



12 

The prospects in South Carolina were gloomy in the ex- 
treme, but the militia brigadiers Marion, Sumter, and Pick- 
ens, of that State, with the gallant and hardy mountaineers 
of South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, 
under Williams, Shelby, Cleaveland, Sevier, McDowell, Lacy, 
Hill, were rallying for the rescue. At King's Mountain, 8th 
October, 1780, these brave mountaineers, struck the blow 
which "completely crushed the spirit of the Loyalists and 
weakened beyond recovery the royal power in the Caro- 
linas." Intelligence of the defeat of Ferguson destroyed all 
Cornwallis's hopes of Tory aid. He instantly left Charlotte, 
retrograded, and established his camp at Winnsboro, in 
Fairfield District." 

Stedman, the British author, says : "The total loss, of so 
considerable a detachment, from the operations of which so 
much was expected, put a stop, for the present, to the fur- 
ther progress of the commander-in-chief, and obliged him to 
fall back into South Carolina for the protection of its west- 
ern borders against the incursions of a horde of mountain- 
eers, whose .appearance was as unexpected as their success 
was fatal to the prosecution of the intended expedition." 
And he also says: "But to whatever cause their disaffection 
was owing, it gave much trouble to Earl Cornwallis and 
greatly retarded his operations." 

In October, 1780, General Nathaniel Greene, succeeded 
General Gates in the command of the Southern department, 
and began actively to reorganize the army so nearly annihi- 
lated at Rugeley's Mills. "His first arrangement was to 
divide his army into two detachments, the largest of which 
under himself, he stationed opposite Cheraw Hill, on the 
east side of the Pee Dee River, in Chesterfield District * * 
about 70 miles to the right of Cornwallis, who was then at 
Winnsboro. The other, composed of about 1,000 troops, 
under General Morgan, was placed some 50 miles to the left, 
near the junction of the Broad and Pacolet Rivers, in Union 
District. Cornwallis sent Colonel Tarleton, with a ct>nsider- 
able force, to disperse the little army of Morgan, and soon 
the memorable battle of the Cowpens occurred, in which 



lo 

the Americans were victorious. Tarleton, with the remnant 
of his troops, retreated precipitately to the main army of 
Cornwallis * * and Morgan, in the evening of the same 
day, crossed the Broad River and moved by forced marches 
towards the Catawba, to form a junction with the division 
of General Greene. When Cornwallis heard of the defeat 
of Tarleton and the direction that Morgan had taken, he 
resolved on pursuit, with the hopes of regaining the prison- 
ers taken at the Cowpens, and demolishing the American 
army before they could reach the Catawba. He was joined 
on the 18th (January, 1781,) by General Leslie and his 
troops from Camden. To facilitate his march, he ordered 
all the superfluous baggage and wagons to be destroyed at 
Ramsour's Mills." Meanwhile, General Greene, who had 
joined Morgan, and saw the pursuit, sent orders to General 
Huger to march with the division at Cheraw Hill and form 
a junction with General Morgan's division at Salisbury or 
Charlotte, North Carolina. Now commenced that memora- 
ble strategic retreat which lured Lord Cornwallis from his 
base of operations and finally resulted, in connection with 
operations hereafter to be mentioned, in the capitulation at 
Yorktown. 

Of the battle of Cowpens, Stedman says : "The defeat of 
his majesty's troops at the Cowpens formed a very principal 
link in the chain of circumstances which led to the inde- 
pendence of America." And speaking of Cornwallis's pur- 
suit of Greene, he says : "Yet the operations of Lord Corn- 
wallis, during the pursuit, would probably have been more 
efficacious had not the unfortunate affair at the Cowpens 
deprived him of almost the whole of his light troops." 

In February, 1781, General Greene had crossed the Dan 
River and was in Virginia, and, according to Stedman, 
"Lord Cornwallis, having thus driven General Greene out 
of the province of North Carolina, returned by easy marches 
from the banks of the Dan to Hillsboro, where he erected 
the king's standard, and invited by proclamation all loyal 
subjects to repair to it and take an active part in assisting 
him to restore order and constitutional government. * * 



14 

Considerable numbers were preparing to assemble, when 
General Greene, alarmed with the intelligence of their mo- 
tions, and the presumed effect of Lord Cornwallis's procla- 
mation, and being about the same time reinforced with 600 
Virginia militia, under General Stevens, took the resolution 
of again crossing the Dan, and re-entering North Carolina." 
Lossing says : "Although driven across the Dan, Greene had 
no idea of abandoning North Carolina to the quiet possession 
of the enemy." 

This recrossing of the Dan by General Greene was fol- 
lowed by the battle of Guilford Court House, on the 15th of 
March, 1781, and the retreat of the American army. Of 
this battle, Stedman says: "In this battle the British troops 
obtained a victory most honorable and glorious to them- 
selves, but in its consequences of no real advantage to the 
cause in which the}^ were engaged. * * * Had Lord 
Cornwallis had with him at the action at Guilford Court 
House those troops that were lost by Colonel Tarleton at the 
Cowpens, on 15th March, 1781, it is not extravagant to sup- 
pose that the American colonies might have been reunited 
to the empire of Great Britain." 

The consequence of the action at Guilford was the retreat 
of Cornwallis to Wilmington, North Carolina, to which 
place "previously to the departure of the army from Winns- 
boro. Lieutenant Colonel Balfour, who commanded at 
Charleston, had been directed to send round by water a 
competent force to take possession * * and occupy it as 
a post with which Lord Cornwallis, in his progress to the 
northward, might open a communication for the purpose of 
obtaining supplies." During this retreat General Greene 
hung upon and harrassed the rear of the retreating British 
army. 

"Lord Cornwallis being under the necessity of repairing 
to a seaport town to obtain necessary supplies, particularly 
shoes and clothing for the army, was apprehensive lest Gen- 
eral Greene should return to South Carolina. Accordingly 
several messengers were dispatched to Lord Rawdon at Cam- 
den to prepare him for such an event. * * * ]S[ot long 



15 

after the arrival of Lord Cornwallis at Wilmington he re- 
ceived information that what he apprehended as probable 
had actually taken place; and that General Greene, upon 
his return to the upper countr}^ had taken the direct road 
to Camden, and was marching with the utmost expedition 
to attack Lord Rawdon. This intelligence rendered the 
situation of the British commander more embarrassing than 
ever and left him only a choice of difficulties, none of which 
were unaccompanied with hazard nor easy to be surmounted. 
It was undoubtedly his wish to afford succor to Lord Raw- 
don, but he knew that it was impossible for him, after the 
progress already made by General Greene, to arrive in time. 
The fate of Lord Rawdon and his garrison must be deter 
mined long before the British army could reach Camden; 
and, should General Greene be successful, there was danger 
that he might have it in his power to hem up his Lordship 
while on his march between the great rivers, and, by cutting 
off his subsistence, render his army useless. On the other 
hand, if General Greene should be defeated, the return of 
the British army would be less necessary. A measure preg- 
nant with so much danger in the execution and promising 
so little advantage in the result was not to be hastily adopted. 
Yet something was necessary to be done. Tlie effective force 
of his Lordship, from sickness, desertion, and the loss sus- 
tained at Guilford Court House, was now reduced to 1.435 
men. * * To remain where he was would be not only 
useless, but * * endanger the health of the troops. To 
return to South Carolina by land would be accompanied 
with tlic hazards already mentioned ; and to return by water 
would be not only disgraceful, but take up much time in 
waiting for transports; * * his Lordship determined to 
take advantage of General Greene's absence from North 
Carolina, to march through that province into Virginia, and 
join his force to a strong corps that had been acting there 
from the beginning of the year, first under Brigadier Gene- 
ral Arnold, and afterwards under Major General Philips, in 
order to make a diversion in favor of the British operations 
in North Carolina. This movement, it was thought, might 



16 

have a tendency to draw General Greene back to the north- 
ward, and seems to have been more readily adopted, as it was 
the opinion of Earl Cornwallis that vigorous measures pur- 
sued in Virginia and the reduction of that province, if 
practicable, would be the most effectual means of securing 
those possessions that had been already recovered in the 
Southern provinces, and of subjecting such as remained to 
be subjected. Earl Cornwallis began his march from Wil- 
mington on 25th April. * * Thus we find that the victory 
at Guilford drew after it some, and it will afterwards appear 
that it was followed by all the consequences of something 
nearly allied to a decisive defeat." 

It is not necessary, in this connection, to follow General 
Greene and his army on the march to South Carolina. The 
results are well known : the State was freed from the tread 
of the enemy by the evacuation of (Charleston on 14th De- 
cember, 1782. Of the toils by which this was brought about, 
let General Greene tell in the few following words: 

"For upwards of two months, more than one-third of our 
army was naked, with nothing but abreech cloth about them, 
and never came out of their tents, and the rest were ragged 
as wolves. Our condition was little better in the article of 
provisions; our beef was perfect carrion, and even bad as it 
was, we were frequently without any. An army thus clothed 
and thus fed may be considered in a desperate situation." 

It is not wonderful, when learning these conditions, that 
Stedman should close his History of the American War with 
eulogiums on the American soldier}^, and, among other 
things say: "The Americans had neither money nor credit ; 
but they learned to stand in need only of a few things ; to be 
contented with the small allowance that nature requires ; to 
suffer as well as to act. Their councils, animated by libert}^, 
under the most distressing circumstances, took a grand and 
high spirited course, and they were finally triumphant." 

It has previously been sketched how the plan of campaign 
for the reduction of the rebellious colonies had been trans- 
ferred from the Northern to the Southern States; it has been 
told that when Sir Henry Clinton, believing that he had 



17 

subjugated South Carolina, returned to New York, leaving 
Lieutenant General Cornwallis in command, "with the charge 
of prosecuting the war in North Carolina as soon as the sea- 
son of the year and other circumstances would permit." In 
pursuance of the general plan of the campaign, Stedman tells 
that — "After it had been determined to carry the war into 
the Southern colonies, first a detachment, as has been already 
mentioned, under General Leslie, and another afterwards 
under General Arnold, amounting to about 1.600, were sent 
by the commander-in-chief from New York into Virginia, 
for the double purpose of destroying the enemy's stores, and 
of assisting, by means of a diversion, the operations of Lord 
Cornwallis in the two Carolinas." 

Of the detachment under General Leslie, Lossing says : 
"Brigadier General Leslie, with about 3,000 troops from 
New York, landed at Portsmouth (October, 1780,) and took 
possession of every kind of public property there and in the 
vicinity. Leslie was to co-operate with Cornwallis, who 
proposed to enter Virginia from the south. He did not re- 
main long, for Cornwallis, hearing of the defeat of Ferguson 
at King's Mountain, hastily retreated ; and Leslie, on being 
advised of this, left for Charleston, for the purpose of joining 
the Earl in the Carolinas." 

The armies under Cornwallis and Arnold made a junction 
at Petersburg, Virginia, on 20th May, 1781, and Cornwallis 
assumed the general command. He propo«ed first to strike a 
blow at the American army under LaFayette ; next, upon his 
defeat, to destroy such stores as could be reached, and "lastly, 
after proceeding to the execution of these objects, which prob- 
ably might be accomplished by the time he could hear from 
New York, to keep himself disengaged from any operation 
thatcouldinterfere with the plan that might be devised by 
the commander-in chief for the furtlier prosecution of the 
campaign." The destruction of stores was accomplished, 
but from intercepted letters. Sir Henry Clinton feared tliatan 
attack was about to be made on New York by a combined 
American and French force. "In consequence of the informa- 
tion gathered from these letters, the commander-in-chief 



18 

made a requisition of part of the troops under Lord Cornwallis 
command in Virginia, and directed that they should be sent 
to New York without delay, unless his Lordship should at the 
time be engaged in some important movement that might 
render it necessary to detain them some time longer ; or un- 
less he should be disposed to execute the plan which the 
commander-in-chief seems to have had much at heart, of 
carrying the war to the upper part of the Chesapeake, and 
upon the Susquehannah, where a number of loyalists had as- 
sociated for their mutual defence, and were said to be ready 
to act whenever the king's troops should appear among them. 

It is not necessary to go into details here: suffice it to 
say, that Cornwallis prepared to send the troops, and believ- 
ing that his weakened army made it necessary to find a 
stronger defensive position, he crossed into the Peninsula 
between the York and James rivers. Before the detached 
troops could sail, a countermanding order reached him, 
with instructions to select some defensive position on the 
waters of the Chesapeake, and the Commander-in-Chief 
" delared that, as soon as the season for acting in that -coun- 
tr}'^ returned, he would probably send there all the troops 
he could spare from the different posts under his command." 
Acting under these orders, Cornwallis, after examining dif- 
ferent positions, selected Yorktown, and on 22d August, 
1781, concentrated his whole force there. On 28th Septem- 
ber, 1781. the combined American and French armies sat 
down before Yorktown, and commenced that siege, which 
terminated on 19th October, by the capitulation of Lord 
Cornwallis, with the army, ships, stores, &c.. under his com- 
mand. This virtually terminated the war of the Revolution. 

One of the articles inserted by the British commander at 
the capitulation of Charleston, required the drums not to 
beat a British march, or the colors to be uncased ; this dis- 
position of colors was considered degrading, and had been 
purposely inserted as an humiliation and insult. At the 
capitulation at Yorktown, as a reprisal, a like article was 
inserted, the drums not to beat an American or French 
march, or the colors to be uncased. Upon the marching 



\y 



19 

out of the British army, Cornwallis, feigning iUness, sent 
the troops under tlie command of Gen. O'Hara, to whom he 
also gave his sword to be surrendered. Advancing to Gen. 
Washington to surrender the sword of Cornwallis, and apol- 
ogize for his absence. Gen. O'Hara was directed to Gen. 
Lincoln, and to him the sword was surrendered, and by him 
immediately returned. The mortifications and humilia- \ / 
tions of the surrender of Charleston were obliterated in the 
triumph of the surrender at Yorktown. The event, which, 
in the haughty pride of apparent success, the British com- 
mander, troops,- people, and government, had hailed as the 
beginning of the end of the rebellion ; which led the con- 
queror to violate every pledged faith to the conquered, 
under the conviction that the fire of revolution had been 
effectually stamped out, and the conquered could be dealt 
with at his conqueror's sole will and pleasure : that event 
was but the first step to the ultimate humiliation of the 
British comjnanders, troops, people, and government. Earl 
Cornwallis was a conspicuous figure on the first, and doubt- 
less revelled high with triumph. In the causes which 
brought about the general uprising of the people of South 
Carolina, and through such uprising brought about results 
which carried him beyond its borders, and to his surrender. 
Earl Cornwallis was the chief actor. Irt this last scene of 
the dram.a, he again appears a prominent figure, but '" feign- 
ing illness " to avoid the personal mortification which, if a 
truly courageous man, he should have felt it a duty and pride 
to share in common with the brave men who had done all 
in their ability to avert. Of Earl Cornwallis, Lossing says -. 
" He was the most competent and energetic of all the British 
Generals sent here during the war, but the cruelties exer- 
cised by his orders at times, during the Southern campaigns, 
have left an indelible stain upon his character." And again : 
" The conduct of Lord Cornwallis during his march of over 
fifteen hundred miles through the Southern States was often 
disgraceful to the British name. He suffered dwelling houses 
to be plundered of every thing that could be carried off"; 
and it was well known that his Lordship's table was fur- 



20 

nislied with plate thus obtained from private families. * * 
It was also estimated at the time, from the best information 
that could be obtained, that, during the six months previous 
to the surrender at Yorktown, the whole devastations of his 
army amounted to about $15,000,000." After the butchery 
of Buford's connnand by Tarleton, Lord Cornwallis writes 
to Sir Henry Clinton : " I can only add the highest enco- 
miums on the conduct of Lieut.-Col. Tarleton. It will give 
me the most sensible satisfaction to hear that your Excel- 
lency has been able to obtain for him some distinguished 
mark of his Majesty's favor." After the surprise of Sumter, 
at Fishing Creek, and the massacre of so large a part of his 
command, Lord Cornwallis writes to Sir Henry Clinton : 
" This action was too brilliant to need any comment of mine, 
and will, I have no doubt, highly recommend Lieut.-Col. 
Tarleton to his Majesty's favor." At the capitulation of 
Charleston, Gen. Richard Richardson was taken a prisoner 
and paroled. After the proclamations. Lord Cornwallis 
" proposed to him, in the presence of his family, either to 
unite himself to the royal standard, with a carte blanche as 
to offices, titles and other gifts of the Crown, or that he must 
submit to the alternative of close confinement." The offer 
of office was promptly rejected. " The alternative threat- 
ened was promptly and rigidly enforced; his health declined 
under the joint influence of a sickly climate and a loath- 
some prison house ; the infirmities of old age (then in his 
76th year) increased rapidly upon him, and death was so 
evidently approaching, that he was again sent home in Sep- 
tember, to linger out the last remaining hours of his life at 
his family residence. His remains had been interred but a 
short time before Tarleton occupied the establisliment. He 
ordered the body of Gen. Richardson to be taken up, and 
left it exposed, until, by the entreaties of his family, they 
were permitted to re-inter it." And, later on, Tarleton again 
visited this establishment, and " after having feasted all his 
command, he ordered the destruction of all the buildings, 
and other property on the place, reluctantly permitting the 
widow and orphans to save their clothing and a very few 



21 

necessaries." Tarleton's quarters had become a synonym 
for all that was cruel. These doings were deliberate parts 
of the campaign, and but repetitions of what was done during 
Prevost's invasion. Botta says of Prevost's invasion : " The 
royal froops were not satisfied with pillaging ; they spared 
neither women, nor children, nor sick. * * Such was 
the rapacity of these robbers, that, not content with strip- 
ping houses of their richest furniture and individuals of 
their most precious ornaments, they violated even the sanc- 
tuary of the dead, and, grasping for gold, went rummaging 
among the tombs. * * Vain would be the attempts to 
paint the brutal fury of this lawless soldiery. * * A cry 
of horror arose throughout the civilized world against the 
ferocity of the British armies." It is not then surprising to 
learn from Col. Lee's Memoirs, that " previous to the sur- 
render, Tarleton waited upon General Choise and commu- 
nicated to that officer his apprehensions for his personal 
safety, if put at the disposal of the American militia. This 
conference was sought for the purpose of inducing an ar- 
rangement which should shield him from the vengeance of 
the inhabitants. General Choise did not hesitate a moment 
in gratifying the wishes of Tarleton. * * * It would have 
been very satisfactory to have been enabled to give the rea- 
sons which induced this communication from Lieut.-Col. 
Tarleton. but Choise did not go into the inquiry, and they 
remain unascertained." 

As Earl Cornwallis and his trusted Lieut.-Col. Tarleton 
remained in their quarters on that memorable 19th October, 
1781, the one "feigning illness," to avoid personal mortifi- 
cation, the other quailing under " his apprehensions for his 
personal safety." * * and praying for " an arrangement 
which should shield him from the vengeance of its inhab- 
itants," and their eyes saw the British colors uncased, being 
marched out for surrender ; and their ears were saluted with 
the British march, " The world turned upside down," doubt- 
less their thoughts reverted to that other surrender, when 
the American colors, uncased, were being marched to sur- 
render, and the American drums beat the Turk's march. 



^2 

Doubtless they contrasted the high anticipations of a speedy 
suppression of the rebellion, with which the capitulation at 
Charleston had filled their hearts, with the certainty that 
in this their humiliation and defeat, American independ- 
ence was achieved ; and realized that what in their pride 
and haughtiness they called rebellion, was become a suc- 
cessful revolution, the birth of a new government and peo- 
ple, the equals and peer among the; nations of the earth, of 
their own government and people. It does not require any 
effort of the imagination to suppose that gory images arose 
before each of them, in which, among others, the face of the 
murdered and disinterred aged patriot, Gen. Richard Rich- 
ardson stood, reproaching the commander with his violated 
pledges of faith, and the Lieutenant with his fiendish bru- 
tality : the pale faces of helpless women and innocent chil- 
dren, robbed of even the necessaries of life, and rendered 
homeless by their residences burned over their heads, may 
have stood before them, crying shame upon their manhood, 
and inhumanity. In the battle-scarred faces which were 
then surrounding them, and receiving their submission, 
they must bitterly have realized that they had sown the 
wind and were reaping the whirlwind. 

On those plains before Yorktown I do not know of a single 
soldier from South Carolina, except Lieutenant ColonelJohn 
Laurens, who, with Colonel Alexander Hamilton, on the 
night of 11th October, 1781, led the American detachment 
wliich stormed redoubt K. The capitulation at Charleston 
had annihilated the Continental line of that State, and such 
State enlisted troops and militia as she then had in the field 
were daily engaged in driving the British from their garri- 
soned posts throughout the State into the shelter of their 
lines at Charleston. There would, therefore, seem nothing 
especially to connect South Carolina with the surrender at 
Yorktown. But the campaign of 1780 and the early part of 
1781 had much, very much to do with it. The British plan 
of campaign had contemplated the reduction of Charleston ; 
the overrunning and subjugation of the State ; an advance 
into North Carolina, and the union with Loyalist forces to 



23 

be raised in the old Highlander settlement ; a march with 
the reinforced army into Virginia and an union there with 
the army sent from New York to make a diversion in favor 
of Earl Cornwallis's operations in North Carolina and South 
Carolina; the overriding of Virginia with this united army, 
and then the hemming in of General Washington and the 
American army between the army of Cornwallis on the one 
side and the army of Sir Henry Clinton on the other. 

But the unexpected, stubborn resistance in South Carolina 
had defeated and set at naught the first march in the pro- 
posed campaign. During the whole of 1780 Cornwallis was 
kept too busy in South Carolina to carry on the advance into 
North Carolina, and when, in the early part of 1781, he did 
so advance, it was by his being lured on by Greene, drawing 
him away from his base, and finally leaving him so sore 
perplexed whither to turn, that in his perplexity he took 
the road to his destruction. The increasing pressure upon 
the British troops remaining in South Carolina forbade any 
help to the perplexed Earl from that source, and he was un- 
able to return by the way he had gone. 

The South Carolina State troops and militia bore very 
important parts in the recovery of that State, so that while 
not a soldier of hers was in the trenches at Yorktown. yet 
looking upon the campaign in the Southern States as a 
whole plan, looking at the causes which deranged that cam- 
paign and which forced the British commander of that 
campaign from an aggressive to a defensive position, it is 
not improper to say that indirectly, but very importantly, 
South Carolina contributed largely to the surrender at 
Yorktown. 

To us as Americans, and particularly as descendants from 
officers of the American army, tlie surrender at Yorktown 
IS memorable ; a day to be commemorated as one of the 
most eventful in the war of the Revolution ; and as such, 
we of the State Society of the Cincinnati of South Carolina 
make it one of the days for our stated meetings ; this we do 
as Americans and as descendants from Revolutionary officers 
of the American army. But. bv the remarks which I have 



24 .m>.ii«miii™iiiiiniuin 




iiiade to you, I wish you, my fellow-meml: 
Society, to appreciate that the events in So i g^ 699 ^S® "' 
the stubborn resistance of her people, wit.x tue persistent 
skill evinced by General Greene in conducting the campaign 
in her borders, did materially contribute to the surrender at 
Yorktown, and identifies the South Carolinians in the tri- 
umphs and advantages which flowed from it. 

I propose to you the regular standing toast : "The 19th 
October, 1780 — the surrender at Yorktown." 



